Am I a fan?

With the Christmas rush half over now I can’t help keep thinking about how Final Fantasy XV is going to do. As someone that got into the series with VII I, like most fans, have felt increasingly burned over the years. The thing is I don’t even know if I am a fan anymore. After enduring the pain of Final Fantasy XIII I realised that each game has got worse and worse with time.

I have gone back and enjoyed VI and VI and although they’re great it only emphasises the fact that these games are on a downward trajectory and have been for years.

The reason I got into the series in the first place was because the graphics were like nothing else and I’d never seen or played anything like it before. That just can’t happen anymore, even if you’ve never played the games before and so I’m not even sure what the appeal is anymore. Not the stories, which have always been bad, but I guess just the general artistic qualities and imagination they put into the creatures and characters?

I’m beginning to sound more down on the games than I intended now, but the truth is I’m confused about my own feelings towards them. I will be getting XV, but I don’t know what I’m going to do if it’s only okay. And to be honest that’s the impression I’m getting.Austin

Timing is everything

RE: Watch Dogs being a successful new IP with a positive launch. My theory on this is selling as much as it did was because there was more or less nothing but shovelware that was available up until the game released in February (I think) after the launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Basically, it was supposed to be a new IP to launch with the new console gen, but it ended up slipping because it wasn’t ready. We all know that there wasn’t an exactly stellar line up of new IPs for launch games (Knack and Ryse as an example), so people were left playing things like Call Of Duty and Battlefield 4, that were available on the previous gen.

It was the first new big IP on the next gen that was released first with nothing else around it (I think it was out about four weeks before Titanfall). If it was to launch say now, as a new IP, would the sales of been anywhere near what they were? My guess is no, and I think that we will see that with number 2.WAYNEOS

GC: Watch Dogs released in late May, 2014. Titanfall was early March.

Minor upgrade

I’m looking at upgrading my original PlayStation 4 to a PS4 Slim, as my original is quite noisy. I have a 2TB hard drive in my original one, is it just a simple case of swapping the hard drives over then all my stuff will transfer over or is there more to it than that? I’ve had a look online but can’t seem to find a definitive answer, thanks.PsychoticGenius (gamertag)/AreOhBe85 (PSN ID)
PS: Just started Witcher 3 again after not getting on with it 12 months ago. All I can say is wow, I’m loving it. Same thing happened with The Last Of Us, couldn’t get into it on PlayStation 3, tried it on PlayStation 4 and it’s now one of my favourite games of all time.

GC: Wouldn’t a PS4 Pro make more sense, if you’re thinking of getting the Slim for such a relatively trivial reason? We’ve never swapped a hard drive over like that, but we’re sure a reader can advise. Or you can simply re-download games and saves from the cloud.

Funny faces

Having been suitably stunned by Uncharted 4 recently, I loaded up Until Dawn for the first time to coincide with Halloween. On its release I remember the graphics being touted as pretty special.

That may still be the case in some areas, except when it comes to the character animation. It’s like watching a load of ventriloquist dummies who’ve been hit with a dose of Joker Venom!

Naughty Dog has ruined everything!A_World_Of_Pain (PSN ID)

Before Oblivion

I think my simple answer to am I willing to put another 100+ hours into Skyrim is: no. I played that game to death and loved it, but I don’t see any real benefit in playing it all again with slightly better graphics. Not when The Witcher 3 exists now.

What I would be interested in though is a remaster of Morrowind. I think many people would be surprised at just how hardcore a role-playing game this was, nothing like Oblivion and certainly miles away from Skyrim’s almost arcadey style.

I’m sure they’d try to smooth over some of the bumps – the game was a bit of a mess in terms of interface and performance – but I think it’d be really interesting to see what I consider the first proper Elder Scrolls brought forward into the modern day.

It’s clear that most publisher publishers, including Bethesda, think a game has to be as simple as possible to appeal to a mass audience and it’d be nice if they did something purely for the fans now and again. It’d be kind of like Dark Souls where it’ll never be really big but can still do a lot of business, especially as a remake would cost less than a completely new game.

I’m sure it’ll still never happen, but if it’s going to be three years till the next one I’ll hold out just a bit of hope.Sammy

Battle of the teraflops

I too have felt my interest in the PS4 Pro cool recently, mainly due to being unsure of any real benefits over my existing PlayStation 4. As has been stated in a recent Inbox, I believe that all this 4K hyperbole is a bit of a smokescreen designed to distract people from the current malaise in terms of real innovation in games design.

For me, the single most exciting recent announcement in gaming has been the Nintendo Switch. I know that it’s early days and still all ifs, buts, and maybes, but I really do hope that Nintendo can pull something special out of the bag and save us from endless teraflop one-upmanship!Anon

Mostly compatible

Has anyone encountered a compatibility problem with Endless Ocean 2 running on the Wii U?

Having recently uncovered a collection of Wii games, I thought I’d finally give this one a go but every time the game starts on the Wii U, it freezes before the title screen with a message about checking Wii Speak is connected and restarting the console. It seems to completely lock the console as well, requiring the power cord to be removed to shut it down.

Happily, the first game works just fine – but the decade-old graphics are looking decidedly jagged through an HDTV.@craigherman (Twitter)

Monster raider

Even though there’s only the name to go on I’m going to try and predict what Shadow Of The Tomb Raider is going to be about. To me the use of the word ‘shadow’ implies a few things: a more serious storyline, a more horror type atmosphere, or possibly more stealth. It could be all three of course, but what it doesn’t scream to me is a return to shooting dinosaurs and endangered species.

It reminds me of the rumours from before the reboot was revealed, when the whole game was meant to be more of a straight survival horror with monsters. They toned all that down a lot in the end (but kept the islands and The Descent stuff) but I think it could be a good direction to go.

Tomb Raider has always had monsters in it and I think something needs to be done to stop here just killing hundreds of mercenaries every game. It’s getting dull and it’s really weird because her kill count must be in the hundreds by now. So yeah, I say monsters. They’ve already got zombies in the PlayStation 4 game, so maybe werewolves or vampires this time.

If I’m right Square Enix owe me £50.Crimshaw

Inbox also-rans

Just a quick message to say that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is the free game in November on Uplay on PC. It normally is downloadable on the 15th of the month.Andrew J.
Just completed: Virginia (PS4)
Still playing: Rise Of The Tomb Raider (PS4)

70 million for GTA V is insane. What’s it going to be before the end though? Gotta be at least 90 million I think, if there’s not going to be a sequel for years. Could even beat Minecraft if those rumours about GTA Online DLC are true.Glottis

This week’s Hot Topic

It’s Halloween this week, so the subject for this weekend’s Inbox asks the simple question of what game has ever scared you the most?

Whether it’s an actual survival horror or not doesn’t matter, but what game or moment in a game, have you found the most frightening? Was it a jump scare, or something more psychological? How impressed where you by how the game had managed to build up to it and how scary was the rest of the experience?

How good do you think games are at creating a horror atmosphere and inspiring fear, and how do they compare to movies and other media? With so few mainstream horror games at the moment, what are you hopes for the genre in the future?